The Simple Secret to Keep Your Aquarium Clean!

Don't overfeed. Don't overcrowd. Grow plants. Put sand in it. Get a little gunk from outside to seed it and to get the right kind of organisms going. I mean, how simple can it be? Well, hello. Come right on in. You're in, Father Fish. I am concerned about your fish tank. Frankly, I'm worried about it. If you have not discovered how to keep a tank and keep it alive, filled with life, then you really are in serious trouble. Because the likelihood is that at some point everything is going to die. Now, that sounds traumatic, doesn't it? And you know as well as I do, it's true. How close are you to absolute catastrophe? If the pump goes out, if the filter quits working, if the power goes off, if someone dumps an entire can of food in your tank. I mean, you name it. If something disastrous occurs, can your aquarium survive it? That's an important question and it's important that you have the right answer. In order to be able to maintain an aquarium that is stable, that's healthy, in which nothing gets sick, in which plants are growing, fish are thriving, they're even having babies. If that's what you've been able to achieve, then you're in good shape. If it is not, then you're not in good shape. What do you need to do about it? Well, the first thing you need to do is get over the notion that your tank must be kept immaculately clean. Now, I'm not talking about clear water. The water in all of my tanks is crystal clear, could not be clearer. It's not a matter of clear water. Let's say it's a matter of the gunk in the bottom of the tank. Now, if it's swirling around every time a fish swims close to the bottom, that's not good. But if you have dirt under your sand or gravel, that's a pretty good sign that your tank is probably pretty healthy. Now, if it's just gravel, that dirt is going to get washed into the water column and make a mess. So, if you have an inch or two of gravel and you have to go in there and pump it out, clean it all the time, let me give you a hint, a good idea. Get some sand. Now, you want it to be rinsed because you don't want dusty sand. You're going to be pouring it right through the water column. So, if it's full of dust, it'll make your tank cloudy and it could be cloudy indefinitely. But get some sand, about one pound per gallon. If it's a 10-gallon tank, 10 pounds of sand. And you're going to put all of that in the tank. It's going to make a layer about two inches deep. If you've got gravel, it'll sift down, perhaps half an inch. So, your total is still going to be about, well, two and a half inches, probably. Get that gravel capped off. That will keep the dirt down inside it. Now, the next obvious thing to do is to put plants in there. If you've got fish that eat plants, then find a plant they don't eat. Not all fish eat all plants. Well, with the possible exception of silver dollars. By the way, if you'd like some really wonderful plants, I have a plant deal that will blow your mind. Over 80 plants for 59 bucks. Less than a plant. It's on father.fish. That's my website, father.fish. So, other than silver dollars, any other fish you have will tolerate, if not outright enjoy, plants. Now, if you've done that much, there's only one more step for you to take. And it is the biggest one and the most difficult one for the average clean and neat fish keeper to do. You need to go outdoors and bring something in from outdoors. The very thought. But here's what you need. You need the microorganisms that will live on the surface and just below that sand, as well as on the plants and the rocks and wood and whatever hardscape you have in there. You need the organisms that live on that. They are unavoidable. You've got them in your tank anyway. But what you have in your tank now is, well, it's not enough. Not enough in quantity, but more importantly, not enough in variety. You see, in any little body of water, the ditch out in your backyard, there are a thousand different kinds of bacteria living in that. Not all of those bacteria are bad. In point of fact, most of them are good. They are what breaks down ammonia, breaks down waste. They are what keeps the water clear, crystal clear and clean. They are hard workers and they are extremely beneficial. You know all of this cleaning and polishing and filtering you do? Nature figured out how to do that about a hundred million years ago and it's been doing it pretty successfully ever since. Oh, I know you're all worried about bringing in some kind of pathogen. It's like somebody taught you that word and you can't get past it. Well, let me tell you something. You have more pathogens in your aquarium right now than you will after you put a thousand or more microscopic animals from outdoors into your tank because they get control of the bad guys and they keep them limited. They keep them under control. You need to get past the notion that has been sold by an industry that has discovered a way to make you spend money to keep your tank clean when all you really need to do is leave it alone. Don't overfeed. Don't overcrowd. Grow plants. Put sand in it. Get a little gunk from outside to seed it and to get the right kind of organisms going. I mean, how simple can it be? It is the easiest thing in the world to do. Let me tell you something. In 1960, Merle Cohen, who owned Aquarium Products, was dealing with a man in Singapore. His name was Lee Chen Ang. What Lee Chen Ang discovered was how to keep saltwater fish and saltwater coral alive in a tank with no filtration, no water current, no electricity, no light, sitting out in the open. He installed these in outdoor hotel lobbies and they were filled with light. And Merle brought that technique back to the U.S. and displayed it in the early 60s at a convention called APPMA. It was a Tropical Fish Association. From that, GARF, G-A-R-F, an organization in central Idaho, sitting on top of a thermal vent, began raising coral in open systems with no electricity except the pump that was pumping the water out of the ground. And they worked miracles. What happened next? Next was Amano, a Japanese nature photographer, who discovered he could grow fish and plants in a freshwater aquarium by putting mud at the bottom of it. Amano. After Amano was Wallstead. And then we put it all together. We put sand on top of that dirt. We found a way to empower the dirt with material that would last for years until the tank could fully cycle itself. And we've created aquariums like this one behind me that have been strong and vibrant and virtually untouched for 20 years. Actually, 22 years. You can do it. You can have an aquarium that is as stable as a rock, as healthy as a horse, with fish spawning in it, thriving in it, plants growing in it, and it will take you no effort at all to maintain it. None. Because you're going to let nature do what nature does best, which is to maintain itself. This is a natural aquarium. Join us in our celebration of the natural world. Bye for now.